Attacking the Hindu community via Donald Trump. An example of Hinduphobia
A few days ago Huffington Post writer Adrija Bose posted an article about #HindusForTrump insinuating that our now notorious nascent logo depicted USA presidential candidate Donald Trump as the Hindu god Vishnu, Lord of Preservation. Indeed, the title of her article is “Trump As Lord Vishnu? How Hindus In America Are Campaigning For Donald Trump“. Ms. Bose went on to make the subtle yet incendiary accusation that we had replaced our Hindu gods with Donald Trump instead:
Obviously, these intrepid ‘Hindus’ were not very worried about their revered deities – which include heavyweights like Brahma and Vishnu, Saraswati and Lakshmi – having a meltdown over Trump taking their place in the display picture.
So inflammatory and outrageous was this projection by Ms. Bose that within two days the claim that Hindus For Trump was disrespecting our Hindu gods and causing outrage could be found on literally a dozen blogs and other tabloids such as the New York Post, International Business Times, Scroll India, and the India Times. The unfounded and completely illogical claim that we were deifying Donald Trump brought rebukes and abuses to our Facebook Page and Twitter Account from every race, ethnicity, religion and political persuasion. The utterly false and ridiculous claim even brought comment from the Hindu American Political Action Committee (HAPAC) who stated that our depiction of Donald Trump as a “Hindu Deity” was “not in good taste”:
Rishi Bhutada, treasurer of the Hindu American PAC, told Diya TV “Hindus are supporting all sorts of political views. As a group, I don’t think they are supporting one candidate.” When asked about the deification of Trump in the poster by ‘Hindus for America’, Bhutada called the group “overly enthusiastic” and said “it’s probably not in good taste to cast a Presidential candidate in the same pose as a Hindu deity.”
BUT THAT IS NOT LORD VISHNU… THAT IS DONALD TRUMP!
There was absolutely no valid reason to equate our nascent logo depicting Donald Trump sitting in a lotus position (padm?sana) BEHIND a lotus to his supposed deification as Vishnu. First and foremost, while Hindu iconography often depicts almost any god or non-god sitting upon a lotus, Lord Vishnu is most often imaged sitting upon his mount, the god-snake Shesha. And while yes, Hindu deities and revered humans are often seen sitting in the padm?sana pose UPON a lotus, once again please take a look at the nascent logo and see that Donald Trump is most definitely BEHIND the red, white and blue lotus. Verily, view carefully enough and you will see that it is Donald Trump who is in the pupil position here, hopefully eventually to be enlightened by the American Hindu influence. Please note, we are “HINDUS for Trump”, not “TRUMP for Hindus”… the direction of energy flow is from us to him and not the other way around… Trump is in no way depicted as a god here.
THE LOTUS/POLITICIAN IMAGERY IS NOT UNKNOWN IN HINDUISM
Ms. Bose also seemed to find our (again nascent) logo “strange”… as if this combination of lotus and politician was somehow unprecedented. The current logo of the ruling party of India, the Bharatiya Janata Party, is that of a lotus. The party leader and current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, a man who Donald Trump says brings “optimism” to India, is often shown sitting in or popping out of a lotus in party member iconography and promotional materials. However very few if any would ever claim that Modi’s supporters are depicting him as Lord Vishnu!
THERE IS REAL DEFAMATION OF HINDU GODS TO REPORT ON
If Ms. Bose and her Huffpo affiliates are really so interested in reporting on the defamation of Hindu gods, they need not manufacture false allegations against us, they can very easily find genuine malicious intent in Bollywood. The 2014 Bollywood flick “PK” depicts a scene of the Hindu god Shiva using a public bathroom and being mildly assaulted by the movie’s main “protagonist” (played by Muslim actor Aamir Khan) whose character is mocking and disrespectful to Hindu gurus. Ms. Bose can also look into Indian Muslim artist M. F. Husain whopaints Hindu gods in the nude but has never depicted the Muslim god Allah in the same compromising position. Here is a real assault on our Hindu deities that can be reported on, not some typical lotus/politician montage.
AN AGENDA TO DIVIDE HINDUS
Bigoted and Hinduphobic Group turns Evil Nazi Symbol into OM – The holiest Hinduism symbol but Media didn’t cry defamation then. Imagine this was done to the Cross of Christianity or Crescent of Islam?
Ms. Bose and her media colleagues must stop with their nefarious agenda of dividing Hindus. Fortunately for them, they need not go far to report on real defamation of Hindu iconography. The anti-Hindu Awaaz Network splashed an image of Narendra Modi wielding a sword, with an Om turning into a Nazi Swastika across the British Parliament during Modi’s U.K. visit. Where was this media’s subtle inflammatory insinuation? Where was the expertly tailored denunciation? Instead of putting forth a forceful condemnation of the flagrant disrespect of Hindu symbols, the Scroll and its English language affiliates in India and abroad, used this rank action to further malign Hindu organizations and Modi.
In a mature Democracy, the right to criticize a government, leader, or group is certainly protected speech. But what many will find outright objectionable is the blatant disregard for their sacred symbols, and the complete lack of any condemnation from the media they have entrusted for fair and balanced reportage. Ms. Bose may want to invest her time in reporting this real issue where a group deliberately misuses religious symbols. A word of heartfelt advice to Ms. Bose and the broader media fraternity is: please do not read defamation where there is none, and please do not invent stories for the sake of creating friction and divisions among the Hindu community. There are far more grave issues for you to focus on.
We await a response from Ms. Bose, and perhaps she and Huffington Post can correct their article and remove these false allegation against us.
By an average Hindu young professional smart enough to distinguish between a man sitting on a lotus flower and real anti-hindu bigotry.
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